You're absolutely right in my opinion about feature and power creep in Hearthstone. As someone who played extensively in 2016-2017 I would agree that they were the golden years. In regards to Like a Record, I think having a bunch of different viable strategies like flooding the board with minions or buffing one of the minions to be super big would be cool options. Having one super big minion made it so I was very concerned with the direction the board was spinning so that I could get it to hit my enemies biggest minion and dodge any steal cards. It really played into the game's theme. The AOE spells like nuke and barrage really subverted the theme in my opinion because it didn't matter how the record was spinning; maybe make them hit the side of the record that is facing the card. Maybe change how the -3 health card works so that you are really concerned with what card it lines up with, like if minions could block it and take the blow or if a spell card could reflect it. My favorite part of Hearthstone in those years was feeling like there were so many viable strategies that I could enjoy and experiment with that would have fighting chance against the most meta decks. There are so many cool and unique directions that Like a Record could go in. I had a lot of fun trying to figure out the best and viable unique strategies in Like a Record and I think the game should lean into the unique aspect of the spinning playing field. Maybe I would be as extreme to say that all the cards should be effected by the direction and how the two records face each other. I'm excited to see what you come up with and experiment with; the game is well put together and it seems like you're focused on having a really great design.